I feel like this clip was sped up, but as evidenced by the people moving at normal speeds in the background, it's not. These people are just that amazing. I'm a little tired just watching them! This was from a 1941 film called Hellzapoppin'. Whitey's Lindy Hoppers disbanded just a year later.

I tried posting this once already, but it never seemed to make it up. I just wanted to say that I'm another present-day lindy hopper and I'm thrilled to see this clip make its way into "mainstream" internet culture (as opposed to our fairly small, insular community of dance nerds, where it's a classic).

No one does it better than these guys - they are all true innovators - but if you want to see the new guard of Lindy Hoppers, do a youtube search for "ULHS Liberation" to see contest footage (largely unchoreographed) from my favorite modern era contest.

Oh, that's definitely not sped up. The guy in the bib overalls is Fankie Manning, who still teaches lindy workshops at 94. I took one last spring. What an interesting guy. He and his friends there basically invented most of the lindy moves. Here's his website if you want more info: http://www.frankiemanning.com/